The news of former San Diego Chargers great Junior Seau's apparent suicide stunned virtually everyone who knew him, including former Chargers coach Marty Schottenheimer.
"When I coached him, he walked into work everyday with a smile on his face," Schottenheimer told me by phone from his home in Charlotte, N.C. "And the thing is, I don't think it ever seemed like work to him. It was fun. He just loved playing football and loved being around his teammates.
"That's why this seems like such a tragedy. If the reports are true, he would be the last guy you would think would do something like this."
Schotteneheimer coached Seau for one season in 2002 and called him the most instinctive defensive player he ever coached.
"I will stand by that statement," Schottenheimer said. "A lot of people have different expressions for it, like he has a 'nose for the ball.' But I just think it was instincts. He was the most instinctive player I ever coached.
"There were so many times he'd take off somewhere and I'd yell ‘Junior, where the heck are you going…oh, great play!' He just knew where to be all the time. He knew where he had to be to make a big play on the ball. Tremendous player with tremendous instincts."
While Schottenheimer only coached Seau one season in San Diego, he spent plenty of weeks game-planning against Seau when he was the coach of the Kansas City Chiefs.
"We had some great games against the Chargers and he was the guy we always had to account for," Schottenheimer said. "You bet we game-planned for him. We used to tell our guys ‘I don't care who beats us on that San Diego defense, but make sure it isn't him.'
"Junior had the ability to beat you by himself. He just knew where every play was developing. We had to plan around him."
Schottenheimer and the Chargers made a difficult decision after the 2002 season, deciding that it was time to get younger on defense. The team subsequently decided not to re-sign Seau and then traded him to the Miami Dolphins.
"It certainly was a hard decision," Schottenheimer said. "He was life-time Charger. He was loved by the fans and loved by his teammates. It's always hard to part with someone like that.
"On a personal basis, it made it doubly hard because he was so well-liked in that locker room. He had the respect of everyone in the locker room from the players to the coaches.
"He walked into work everyday with a smile on his face. And then he proceeded to outwork everyone."
Schottenheimer said he would have no problem ranking Seau among the best middle linebackers of all time.
"No question," Schottenheimer said. "I always said that when I had Derrick Thomas in Kansas City, he had the quickest first step I'd ever seen. And with Junior, I thought he was the most instinctive linebacker I'd ever seen.
"But when you're talking about the greats, guys like Jack Lambert, Dick Butkus, Tommy Nobis, Mike Singletary, I definitely believe that Junior Seau ranks right up there with all of them. He was that good.
"And he will be missed terribly."
